You can bet your ass they certainly hope so.

New Orleans Hornets president Hugh Weber both told CBSSports.com that they plan to sit down face-to-face with Chris Paul to sell him on the team’s new direction for the coming 2010 NBA basketball season. Paul can’t go public with his trade request — if he did, he’d be subject to a fine under NBA rules — but those with knowledge of his plans believe his desire to pair up with another superstar (or two) has gained too much momentum to stop.

In late June, Chris Paul, 25, spent several days in Akron, Ohio, with James, who was busy orchestrating his own exit strategy from Cleveland. The two friends and superstars picked each other’s brains, with each persuading the other to make significant changes in their branding strategies.

For Paul, it was a big step to persuade James to join the social networking phenomenon that is Twitter. For James’ part, he finally persuaded Paul to join his Cleveland-based marketing company, LRMR.

Paul’s decision to sign with LRMR, headed by James’ close friend and advisor, Maverick Carter, was only the first step in his exit plan from the New Orleans Hornets. Paul officially severed his representation agreement with Octagon earlier this month and will soon officially join the influential stable of clients represented by Creative Artists Agency.

With a stranglehold on the top free-agent talent…

One thing’s for sure, Boston Celtics general manager Danny Ainge isn’t worried about the Miami Heat.

“We’re the Eastern Conference champions. And we think we’re going to be better next year.” Those were the words uttered by Boston Celtics manager Danny Ainge heading to the 2010 NBA basketball season, a season already proclaiming the trio of Dwyane Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh in Miami the heavy favorites to win it all.

Ainge confirmed that the Boston Celtics have agreements in place with Paul Pierce and Ray Allen that would keep Boston’s Big Three intact for a run at a third NBA Finals stint in four years. Ainge also said he expects to sign free agent center Jermaine O’Neal to fill in while center Kendrick Perkins recovers from knee surgery.

A six-time All-Star, Jermaine O’Neal has averaged 14 points and 7.5 rebounds in a 14-year career for Portland, Indiana, Toronto and Miami. With the Heat last year, he averaged 13.6 points and 6.9 rebounds in 28 minutes. However, O’Neal struggled mightily in the playoffs against the Celtics, averaging just 4.2 points per game in the five-game series.

Remaining on Ainge’s list of potential free agents are re-signing longtime Celtics bench player Tony Allen and midseason acquisition Nate Robinson.

“We’re trying to fill our roster in. Once we get this taken care of the next couple of days, then we’ll start working on the next group of guys,” Ainge said. We like Nate and Tony. I’m sure they’re still looking at the market, too, because the market’s pretty crazy right now. So we’ll be patient and look at other options as well in case they go in another direction.”

“We intend to sign him,” Ainge said. “Our priorities to…”

After he got Zydrunas Ilgauskas to leave Cleveland too and join him in Miami, LeBron might really be fucking with Cleveland now.

And in case you didn’t know, yes, Zydrunas Ilgauskas is the latest former Cavalier to join and follow LeBron James to the Miami Heat. Add him to the list of players that shapes up to be a serious title contender in Miami, joining not only James but Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh as we head closer to the 2010 NBA basketball season.

The veteran center, who started playing for Cleveland in 1997 and has never suited up for another NBA team, signed a two-year contract with the Heat to join former Cavaliers teammate LeBron James. The two-year deal would come with a player option for the second season.

The decision Zydrunas Ilgauskas made became known less than a week after James sparked outrage and outcry in Cleveland by going on a made-for-television special and saying he was joining the Heat. His departure won’t generate the same reaction from Clevelanders, but it’ll hurt more the owner of the Cavs Dan Gilbert.

Ilgauskas was a fan favorite for more than a decade, and when he returned to the Cavs after getting traded to the Washington Wizards this past season, a sellout crowd welcomed him with huge signs bearing the letter “Z”—his moniker. Ilgauskas never played for the Wizards, quickly getting bought out and then returning to Cleveland after a 30-day waiting period.

Playing with James again was a major factor in Ilgauskas’ decision…

The New York Knicks have had the 2010 NBA free agency period in their sights for quite a while.

LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, and Chris Bosh, among other superstars, were set to become free agents, and the New York Knicks are supposedly the ultimate free agent destination before the 2010 NBA basketball season starts.

The reality is, the New York Knicks failed to land LeBron James and couldn’t get Wade or Bosh either. The back up plan was to get Stoudemire and Johnson, but that failed, too. The Knicks ended up with only one big-name free agent, Amare Stoudemire. Stoudemire is a great player, but it is definitely not what the Knicks had anticipated.

The question now is, is Amare Stoudemire that much of an upgrade over David Lee? It’ll be interesting to see what he gets, but we’ll guess it’ll be somewhere in between $8-$12 million a year (especially if scrubs like Drew Gooden and Amir Johnson are getting $5-6 million a year).

Lee is only six months younger than Amare, and let the record show that while we like Lee, he posted 20-11 and 16-11 the last two years mostly because the Knicks had nobody in the frontcourt. Somebody has to collect those rebounds and score those garbage points. This is not to say Lee will be a bust at his next stop, but if he goes to a team with actual talent, we expect that scoring to be cut in half and then you basically have Troy Murphy without the range.

With the addition of Raymond Felton, the Knicks got a…

For the Bulls’ sake, let’s really hope that’s the case.

In case you didn’t know, two-time All-Star forward Carlos Boozer has agreed to a five-year, $76 million deal to play for the Chicago Bulls in the coming 2010 NBA basketball season.

Anticipating about $30 million in cap room, the Chicago Bulls were looking to make a big splash in free agency after consecutive first-round playoff exits. Adding Carlos Boozer strengthens their standing in the Eastern Conference.

Boozer has spent six seasons with the Utah Jazz, and he averaged 19.5 points and 11.2 rebounds last season. His arrival gives the Chicago Bulls a formidable pair in the frontcourt with Joakim Noah, not to mention a good pick-and-roll partner for All-Star point guard Derrick Rose. Boozer said he felt like the Bulls were the team for him from the beginning of his free agency.

“I came up here on the 1st. I was here on Thursday and Friday as soon as free agency opened up. It felt like it felt right the entire time,” Boozer said. “I went to talk to some other teams, of course, both for my due diligence and to see what the other teams had to offer. But Chicago always felt like it was the best fit.”

This is because Boozer believes the Bulls have the potential to win NBA championships. “They want to win, and that was the biggest thing for me,” he said.

With Boozer, the Bulls finally have a big man who will command double-teams — something they’ve craved for years — and can hit the jumper. They now have two double-double players, with Noah averaging 10.7 points and 11.0 rebounds last season, and can still add a perimeter player.

When he looks ahead, Boozer likes what he sees. He had a…

Yep, this is the perfect time to jump on the bandwagon.

After last week’s hour-long reality program in which LeBron James announced he would be joining fellow Class of ’03 draftees Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami, many fans and analysts were quick to crown the Miami Heat as the favorites to not only come out of the Eastern Conference, but to also win an NBA Championship in the 2010 NBA basketball season.

The Miami Heat has undoubtedly one of the best core groups in the NBA, anything less than the championship in the coming season would be considered a failure. Winning a championship takes a lot of things, including luck with injuries and a few bounces to go your way. It’ll be awfully hard, even with a team with LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.

They are a long way from a title this year. Even with three of the best players walking the planet on one team. The Heat, having sent Beasley to Minnesota for draft picks, have four players under contract and two second-round draft picks on their roster. After spending the vast majority of their salary cap to sign two superstars to join Dwyane Wade, it will be very difficult to sign quality role players to fill out the remainder of the roster.

Taking a look around the rest of the league, the other top teams with multiple All-Star quality players still have other role players on their team who can make strong contributions to their respective teams.

Looking at just the East, one would easily pick Miami to…

Kevin Pritchard, the general manager of the Portland Trail Blazers, has been fired.

After spending six seasons with the Blazers, it ended months of speculation that he had fallen out of favor with billionaire owner Paul Allen. And in case you haven’t figured it out yet, no, he won’t be running the show in Portland once the 2010 NBA basketball season kicks off.

“This process was more public and took longer than any of us would have liked, but that was indicative of how critical a decision this was for the franchise,” Allen said in a statement. “We want to thank and acknowledge Kevin for his solid work in getting us to where we are today. Parting ways with a popular general manager is not something we take lightly. In the end, we decided to make a change.”

Portland Trail Blazers president Larry Miller said Pritchard met with Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft and owner of the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks and Miller would not specify why Pritchard was let go. Pritchard is under contract through next season and the Blazers will honor his contract. A search firm had earlier been hired to vet candidates for the job.

A rumored possible replacement, Oklahoma City Thunder general manager Sam Presti, recently denied that he had been contacted about the job. Miller said Denver Nuggets executive Mark Warkentien, also said to be interested, was not being considered.

Kevin Pritchard joined the Blazers as director of player personnel in

My oh my, everybody’s really moving in the NBA lately.

The Denver Nuggets reached an agreement on a five-year, $34 million contract with free-agent forward Al Harrington, making the 2010 NBA basketball season a little bit more interesting after LeBron James went to Miami.

The Denver Nuggets had to outbid the Dallas Mavericks to secure Harrington’s signature after Dallas followed up its trade acquisition of Tyson Chandler earlier Tuesday with a hard push for Harrington, which included an in-person recruiting pitch at the NBA’s annual summer league in Las Vegas from Mavericks owner Mark Cuban.

But Denver would appear to have a greater need for Al Harrington than Dallas, given that the Nuggets expect to start the season with Kenyon Martin and Chris Andersen unavailable after both recently underwent surgical procedures. That enabled Harrington’s agent, Dan Fegan, to land a deal starting at the full $5.8 million mid-level exception from the Nuggets which extends for the maximum allowed five years.

Buoyed by Dallas’ acquisition of Tyson Chandler after it appeared that Toronto would acquire the 7-footer from Charlotte, Dallas quickly pinpointed Harrington as its next top summer target.

The Dallas Mavericks know they need more offensive punch next to Dirk Nowitzki and were drawn to Harrington’s scoring ability. Dallas also had more than the usual familiarity with Harrington’s game after Mavs coach Rick Carlisle had Harrington in Indiana. Dallas, though, proved hesitant to extend a full five-year offer because…

The entire city of Cleveland certainly hope not.

The coming 2010 NBA basketball season just got a little more interesting after Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh announced that they will both sign with the Miami Heat.

And since LeBron James, along with Wade and Bosh, have talked about the idea of playing together, does that mean LeBron will announce, on national TV, that he will be playing for the Heat too?

And in case you haven’t heard, yes, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh will play together for the Miami Heat, putting that franchise right in the middle of the title chase next year in June. Ending months of speculation, Wade and Bosh announced Wednesday that they’ll sign with Miami, two decisions that vault the Heat back into the NBA championship picture and put them two-thirds of the way to hitting one of the biggest trifectas in NBA history.

You see, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and LeBron James all have talked about playing together. On Thursday night, James will say why that will or will not happen. “It’s over,” Wade said in an interview with The Associated Press. “It’s not all over-over, but for me, it’s over.”

LeBron James can’t say that yet.

Dwyane Wade told the Heat that for him to re-sign, the team had to add either LeBron James or Chris Bosh. For good measure, they might get both.

“It had to be one or the other,” Wade said in the AP interview. “Of course, there’s a lot of talented players in this league. But you want to look at players that complement my game, and Chris and LeBron are two of those guys. I had a decision to make. Chris had a decision to make. It wasn’t a lock that he would come to Miami. So I had a lot to think about.”

James averaged 29.7 points for Cleveland last season…

And this time, they’re saying he could pair up with Dwyane Wade in, (drum roll please…) New FUCKING Jersey.

In case you didn’t know, both superstars; LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, will become free agents this summer. And there have been many rumors on whether the two should sign with the same team and if such a pairing would thrive.

The reasons against are, by now, well known. Many say that LeBron James and Dwyane Wade want their own team, won’t share the ball, and won’t take less money and/or term on contracts, which is a must for a co-superstar arrangement to happen.

There is, of course, the economy. League revenues have fallen, so the salary cap for 2010-11 will also fall, which means teams will have less to spend on free agents without triggering the luxury tax. And most owners have less disposable income to spend on NBA teams.

Then again, a LeBron James – Dwyane Wade partnership is still a possibility. It could work on the basketball court and balance sheet.

Being ‘The Man is a necessity. Not a choice. Without great teammates, James and Wade must dominate on-court for the Cleveland Cavaliers and Miami Heat respectively to have any chance at winning. If being ‘The Man’ was what each truly wanted, they’d have maintained the status quo long ago by inking extensions with their current teams.

Two summers ago, James and Wade accepted lesser roles when…